High-profile arrests have been expected for a very long time. For over two years now, Ukrainians have been demanding punishment for those in power who were guilty of escalating events on the Maidan and then the war in Donbas. The question “Why aren’t the Regionals being punished?” is hotter than ever, and it’s only recently that the Prosecutor General’s Office has tried to answer it. Now Oleksandr Yefremov, ex-Head of Luhansk Oblast State Administration, then First Deputy Head of the Party of Regions and generally one of the more odious ex-Regionals, is sitting in jail awaiting trial

A crisis of relations in the victorious team blows up into a real fratricidal war and ends with some of them fraternizing with the one-time enemy. Just over 10 years ago, the country lived through a similar story

On June 2, 2013, 117 villages and towns throughout Ukraine held early mayor elections. Candidates nominated and supported by the Party of Regions won the elections in six bigger towns in Crimea, Zakarpattia, Kyiv, Luhansk, Mykolayiv and Chernivtsi Oblasts, the party’s press-service reports. Overall, 101 out of 117 newly elected village and town mayors are Party of Regions’ members.

Ukraine’s opposition has major flaws and should make itself worthy of support, but democratically minded Ukrainians should prefer an adrift opposition to the authoritarian alternative, Alexander Motyl, American historian and professor of Political Science at Rutgers University, notes in his blog on The World Affairs Journal.

If used cleverly holding of referendum in Ukraine could actually hasten the Party of Regions disappearance from Ukrainian politics, Alexander Motyl, American historian and professor of Political Science at Rutgers University, writes in his blog on The World Affairs Journal.

The Regionnaires have lost their constituency and, thus, the battle for the future. They know they’re in trouble and they don’t know what to do about it. Writes Alexander Motyl in his Blog in Word Affairs

Party of Regions’ and Communist Party MPs, as well as independent MPs, the total of 244, have voted to hold the parliamentary session at an alternative location, 6/8 Bankova Street, rather than the current parliament building at Hrushevskoho Street.

The Yanukovych regime is depriving Kyiv voters of their right to influence the local government through elections. This may be a test of the public and opposition reaction to a scenario whereby national presidential or parliamentary elections will be postponed or cancelled

The Party of Regions` attempts to intimidate the opposition with early elections or responsibility for the breakdown of European integration have not given the desired result so far, so an escalation of resistance can be expected in the near future

There are people whom you simply don't trust. Even if they offer something allegedly favourable and plausible, unintentionally you automatically put up resistance. Nothing can be done: that is reputation.

We can reassure ourselves that both the crime committed against Oksana Makar and her eventual death struck like lightning out of the blue sky. It was an unexpected natural cataclysm that could not possibly been foreseen or prevented. There is a great temptation in this horrible story to pin all the blame on the three young men that committed the crime. But in fact, the indifference and conformism of each one of us are the true root of problem that resulted in the rape and death of the girl.

Despite pressure and money, despite manipulating election legislation and bribing entire social groups with financial injections from the budget, Ukraine’s leadership feels increasingly insecure. The fear of losing power is gradually turning into panic as current officials become increasingly aware that one day they will be held accountable for violating written and unwritten social laws

It is common knowledge that we most empathise with someone in whose place we might find ourselves. Rank and file citizens of Mykolaiv took to the streets in order to send a number of monsters who are the sons of influential parents behind bars.

The Party of Regions has launched preparations for the 2015 presidential election by proposing amendments to election legislation that are aimed at furthering the government’s impact on the results of the vote, while the drafted constitutional amendments will, if passed, strip Viktor Yanukovych’s successors of control over government bodies.